SOME THINGS ANIMALS TEACH US
Many of our human devices are not original with us: The woodpecker has a powerful little grip hammer. The jaws of the tortoise and turtle are natural scissors. The framework of a ship re J sembles the skeleton of a herring. The squirrel carries a chisel in his mouth, and the bee the carpenter’s plane. The gnat fashions its eggs in the shape of a lifeboat. You cannot sink gnats without tearing them to pieces. A porcupine’s bill is strengthened by ribs in the same way that the iron masts of modern ships are strengthened. The diving bell imitates the water spider. It constructs a small coll under the water, clasps a bubble of water between its legs, dives into its submarine chamber with the bubble, displacing the water gradually, until its abode contains a large, airy room surrounded by water.
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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 31 December 1938, Page 10
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146SOME THINGS ANIMALS TEACH US Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 31 December 1938, Page 10
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